It is well known the litter but not limited to paper, packages, food containers, food wrappers, and leaves are washed down into waste water drainage systems and thus enter creeks, rivers, reservoirs, designed wet lands, and the ocean during and after periods of rains. Leaves are often a great source of the litter, especially where deciduous trees are planted along roadways, and especially when the first winter rains fall immediately after autumn. A large proportion of this water drainage is from roadways. The water runs off the roadway into the kerb (curb) or gutter, openings being provided at selected points along the gutter or kerb for the water to drain into the drainage system.
The openings are provided to direct the water to a drainage pit, the openings being either in the bottom of the gutter, or in the sidewall of the gutter or kerb. The opening in the bottom of the gutter is covered by a grid which prevents the majority of the trash entering the pit. However the opening for the side entry pit is open and all trash can be washed into the pit.
Various attempts have been made to overcome the problem, these including screens and baskets as in registered designs 147248 to 147268, filters as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,709,579, JP2004285819, AU2002100292, and removable drain filter as described in AU20007203.
However with a side entry pit it would be preferable if some form of screening can be utilised to prevent the entry of the trash into the drainage pit. However the screen must be such that it still permits a vehicle wheel to roll in the gutter and permit a street sweeper to pass in front of the side entry pit.
Also side entry pits have the pit under the edge of the footpath, lawn, or verge of the construction adjacent the roadway, the pit being closed by one or more cover plates, usually of concrete, having a channel shaped metal member surrounding the cover plate.
Thus there is a need to provide a temporary barrier to the entry of solid or heavy materials and debris being washed into a side entry pit. It is desired also that the temporary barrier be anchored so that it is not liable to be washed out of position.